Poor Service From 'Own The Runway'

Hate to throw a dash of negativity into your day, but I've seen other people 'expose' companies that they have received poor or unacceptable service from, and I wanted to do the same with Own The Runway because I definitely feel disgusted with their service. Poor customer service is a number one hate for a lot of people, and I am no different. Sometimes things go wrong, it happens, but I would much rather it be sorted out as quick as possible than for it to be a frustrating and drawn out process with a lot of automated e-mails and unanswered phone calls! Own The Runway have ruffled my feathers and I have made a mental note to never order from them again.

You may have seen my post (link here) a few weeks back where I ordered some dupes of the AA Disco Pants from Own The Runway along with a white shirt. The Disco Pants I love and would wear every day for the rest of my life if I could, but the white shirt was poor quality and as I mentioned in the original post I had sent it back because of the cheap material and the multiple loose threads coming from it. 

When I placed my order in the first place I had never received any kind of confirmation e-mail or a dispatch e-mail, only a receipt of payment as I paid via PayPal. This meant that I did not know what my order number was. When I looked into returning the shirt the returns form said that I had to actually notify the company within 7 days of receipt that I was going to return my item in order to 'cancel the contract', and it had to be returned within 14 days. This was written in very small print at the bottom of a scrappy piece of paper that I very almost threw away. I'm glad I spotted this (as a law student I know how important it is to read the sneaky small print!) and I e-mailed them to say that I was going to return my order but I did not know what my order number was due to a lack of confirmation e-mails. I got a response 3 days later (bearing in mind this was mid-week) telling me what my order number was so that I could fill out my returns form. There was a small space (one line) on the form to mention reasons for return and just wrote 'poor quality, not as expected' and with the option for 'exchange' or 'refund' I circled refund. 

There was an option to send my parcel back via Collect+ for a charge of £2.99, but when I am used to Asos offering free returns this seemed a little steep to me, especially when I had already paid £2.99 for it to be sent out to me in the first place. (Sorry, but I'm really stingy with p&p costs!!). So I just sent it via Royal Mail, normal delivery, second class (3-5 working days) and it costs me £2.20. If I'd have known the hassle that was going to come next I would've rather paid an extra 79p to use Collect+ and be able to track my return!

My proof of postage slip tells me that my parcel was sent on Tuesday 13th August. Technically my order should have landed back at Own The Runway before the weekend, and if not it should definitely have got there by the following Tuesday. What I would've expected is some kind of message to let me know that they have got my order and are processing my return as this is the kind of service that I am used to from trusty Asos. I left it until Wednesday 19th before I did a little bit of chasing up and I sent them an e-mail just asking whether or not they had received my return yet. No reply. I sent another e-mail to them on Monday 24th again asking if they had received my order and what I received was an automated response that they take 8-10 days to process returns, but what I wanted was an answer to my question of whether my parcel had got to them or whether I needed to take up the matter with the post office. When 15 working days had passed (up to 5 days for delivery, up to 10 days for processing) and it got to the 3rd September I was reaaaally frustrated and even took to the twitter account to ask who I could contact and not get the same automated response. They gave me a number to ring; nobody picked up. I sent another e-mail, again explaining that I wanted to know if they had my order or not. Automated response. Frustrating? Yes!

The next day I finally got the e-mail that I wanted. Or did I?

'Re: Return Order

We received your items on 29/08/12 and sent you an email which said "Hello, we have received your return item but unfortunately the shirt received back to us has a pull at the front therefore as the shirt was not received back in its original condition it cannot be refunded. We will send this item back out to you but you will need to pay £2.99 postage charges. You can do this via PayPal.. etc etc'

Joke??

I don't send an item back for it being poor quality and then wait three weeks for my refund only to be told that I need to pay for them to send me it back as they won't refund it? Ha. I DON'T THINK SO. I don't want a poor quality shirt that was sent to me with a pull in the front, I would like my refund thanks.

There was a phone number attached to the e-mail so I gave it a ring, extremely annoyed by this point at that piss take e-mail and ready for a good rant down the phone! Unfortunately, I didn't get very far with the receiver of my call, whoever she may have been. I explained the situation and my annoyance at the fact that the shirt was sent out to me in bad condition with the 'loose threads' as I referred to them, and she said that as I had failed to ever report it 'faulty' to them prior to my return there was nothing they could do. I continued to say that I had not considered it to be 'faulty' and merely 'poor quality' which was why I made no report on it. As she didn't really understand my point she said that she would speak to the person who was in charge of my return and ring me back. I left my number. 3 days later. No one has rung me back. I also replied to the e-mail basically just explaining what I said on the phone, that I had received the shirt in that condition and that is the reason that I returned it and that I will not be sending them £2.99 for them to post it back out to me and I would prefer my refund. I also threw it in there that I was 'extremely dissatisfied' with the service that I had received. It took two days for me to get a response to my e-mail and all it said was that 'somebody would get back to me'. *yawn*. Still waiting.

They have the shirt. They have my money. It looks like I'm getting nothing back.

Very frustrating and drawn out process, but I can safely say that Own The Runway is one company I will NOT be ordering from again. 

Did you find this a petty ordeal? Could I have done more? Am I too stressed over nothing?

Would something like this put you off from ordering again?